This was a surprise, first because from the cover art and particular label I thought it was another CD of Brazilian-flavored jazz guitar. Actually, it’s classical and a sort of travelogue of Portuguese music involving the guitar and traveling from its home country to the New World (with the exception of the Handel concerto). The other surprise was that this album was issued in 1997 on the Concord label, and usually it’s a larger label which picks up a small label’s recording for reissue – not the other way around as in this case.
The album was originally recorded in Sofia, Bulgaria – another example of U.S. classical producers taking advantage of the high skills and much lower cost of recording in Eastern Europe. The sonics on the two discs are exactly the same. The program is well-balanced, with different three-movement guitar concertos as bookends – beginning and end of the CD. In the middle are a melodic little four-minute Arietta for guitar and orchestra by Yasui, an 11-minute Capriccio Diabolico by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and the title tune by Antonio Carlos Jobim, which translates as The Dolphin. The last comes from a Brazilian legend about a fish with magical powers. The closing concerto by Cordero – one of Puerto Rico’s leading composers – utilizes many different timbres and effects on the guitar, including percussive ones.
– John Sunier
